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Winning with Whitt-January 2, 2019

Wed, 01/02/2019 - 12:23pm

Whitt Sparks

I like to think that I’m a pretty smart guy. I like to keep up with all the latest sports news, and even the news around the world. I’m not sure I’m an expert on anything, but I try to be well informed. With that said, there are some things I don’t understand. Things that just don’t make sense, to me at least.

I don’t understand how the College Football Selection Committee thought it was a good idea to put Notre Dame in the college football playoffs. Notre Dame was clearly out played in every part of the game last Saturday. They weren’t even close to the quality team that Clemson, Alabama, or even Oklahoma. I think that where the committee lost it’s way is that it confused undefeated with greatness. It’s a trap we all can fall into. There are some in the country that felt that because the University of Central Florida has been undefeated for the last two seasons that this must equal a truly great team. I do agree that Central Florida is a good team, maybe great team. But they couldn’t beat any team in the top 10. Notre Dame has officially stepped into the same category as Central Florida and Boise State before them.

What’s distracting is the tradition. I don’t think there’s another team in college football that has such a steeped tradition as the Fighting Irish. And that tradition can cloud our vision of the present. The selection committee was seeing Knute Rockne, Touchdown Jesus, and Rudy when they looked at this season’s Notre Dame. They certainly weren’t watching the anemic offense. And because of that I watched the worst college football playoff game in the short history of the system last Saturday afternoon where Clemson throttled Notre Dame.

Here’s the truth. Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, and about 6 other teams would have been better choices than Notre Dame. We know that, and so does the Selection Committee. I don’t know who the committee is accountable to, but someone needs to tell them they royally screwed up this playoff with Notre Dame.

So how do we fix this going forward: Here’s a few suggestions.

Tell Notre Dame that until they join a conference they will NEVER make the playoffs.

Tell the committee that they need to put more weight in the quality of the opponents a team faces over their overall record.

Expand the playoff to 8 teams.

Force the Committee to release notes or summaries that show how they arrive at their decision about the football playoffs.

Alabama and Clemson play for the national championship in the next few days. I’m not sure I’m surprised. I looked back at the pre-season polls at the beginning of the season and some of those picks are laughable now, but the two everyone got right; the two that are the most important, everyone seemed to get correct. Alabama vs. Clemson.

So who’s going to win? I honestly don’t know. Both teams have quality offenses and defenses with playmakers on both sides of the ball. I’m just rooting for a good game.